Week 7 Letter

Wa Gwan!

Ok, I seriously think you guys are having waaaay too much fun back home!! Pig out in the park, kickin it with the family, Seriously, I miss working on the deck and cleaning the house... is that weird? :) 

This week was kinda lame. I had a lot of bicycle problems so we were always fixing a tire, pumping up a tire, yadayadayada. A lot of appointments fell through this week, and our numbers were waaaaay down, so we went on a 3 and a half hour finding spree to get some new investigators and maybe make something happen here in Maypen. It seems like all our investigators are either to scared to read about the Book of Mormon but dont mind us teaching them about it, don't know how to read, or just like to have white people come over. We've had one person actually read a chapter by themselves between visits and it was awesome! Me and Nelson just looked at each other and smiled, after the lesson we were walkin outta Juno Cresent and both were like "Bumbot!!!" (boom-bot: Jamaicas equivellent to "daaaaaang! Freaaak! Thats crazzzzy!!" Her baby daddy is crazy though, had a test of faith this week with him, but all is well :)

Friday was really fun. After the finding spree we had activity at the building. Played Basketball for 3 hours, we do taht every friday. I love ball here! Everyone is always freakin out about every little thing, its the kind of smack talking basketball everyone should play. Saturday we went to Brother R's funeral, there were a ton of people there. We brought 100 Plan of Salvation pamphlets and it wasnt nearly enough. After that we got burger king with Elder Toutai and Gilson, and Toutai is awesome but we always spend way to much time with him, he's like the guy that sits and talks to you for 20 minutes in the drive thru, makes you laugh, cool dude, but you've got 3 freds burgers burning to a crisp and you're just hoping someone flipped them because you don't want to stop talking to this guy haha 

There's been a couple of things that have reminded me of home this week and its been pretty awesome. So my acne kinda busted out this week and H, a recent convert, tells me she's gonna give me some tuna and im supposed to fillet it and scrape it in water and then drink it and it will help my skin... so she goes to grab the "tuna" in question, and I look at Nelson and tell him he better drink it with me, as we are busting a gut because im getting the Jamaican remedy for acne, and she comes out with two Aloe vera leaves haha they call that tuna here. That was definietly a nice surprise. So we get home and Nelson is trying to fillet it and screws the whole thing up so i grab it and fillet it just like Kevin showed me how to fillet the fish and boom, a perfect cut! It was pretty surreal, cutting aloe plants like fish... in the end, the drink was nasty, but i think its actually helping. Then saturday we are up in Juno and there is an old man shoveling a giant pile of rocks from one pile to another pile 5 feet away, so i stop and do it for him in like 15 minutes, totally thought about being in the back of Gilson's truck shoveling red rock for 2 months straight, but instead of a cold beverage and a butt kicking in pool afterwords, we had a sweaty half hour bike ride, but thats still better than a butt kickin in pool by grandpa Gilson. (by the way, I play pool every wednesday and thursday at lunch... Im comin for you Gilson!!)
And then Sunday, we had no investigators show up (again, 4 weeks straight) but a lady in the branch brought her 18 year old twin sisters who are investgating the church and i thought of Jen and Jes and Katie and Chuck. Pretty funny.

We get transfer calls this saturday! Pretty crazy ive been on my mission for almost two months. Day seem like they take forever sometimes but the weeks smoke by. My patois is getting better, but everyone just laughs at me when i try and speak it, so im sticking to english for the most part :) 

I love having a guitar!! My calluses are already all back and im writing some sweet licks before studies in the morning and after plannign when we get home and on P-days. Nelson is learning really quick too. 

Thats crazy school is starting already. School is starting here too next week, everyone wears the same uniform too. I wonder if the streets wont be as crazy with all the kids locked up in school. Or if we wont get harrassed as much. Usually when people harrass us we just ignore them but its so hard sometimes. We were at the ATM this morning and this guy told us to give him some money and he wouldnt leave it alone, so Nelson points to the guy behind us (black guy, duh) and asks the begger why he doesnt beg him for money... he didnt say anything. This guy wasnt even homeless or anything, we arent supposed to give our money out because we hardly dont have enough to spare, but yeah... its been raining like crazy here this weekend! crazy rain, the hurricanes all sideswipe us, but we never get the brunt of it, thankfully. I hear we get like one nasty cane a year though, so we shall see!
Oh yeah, and picture this: it rained all last night, its like 79 degrees, so me and Nelson are wearing jeans and drank hot chocolate at Burger King this morning.... PATHETIC I KNOW! haha :) Well i love you all, not much more to say. Have a great week!! 
Elder Romney

Letter for week 6

Wha gwan,

Monday and tuesday where pretty normal, P-day and then a full day tuesday. Wednesday we had a trade off and Elder Gilson came here, so I led the area again. It went pretty good, besides the fact we got we waited outside Greg's bar to teach him, he showed up and then left without telling us, and it rained so we were pretty muddy. But not terrible, still had a good lesson with G. We found out that Old Harbours phone wasnt working because we had called 15 times to ask elder nelson what Bro. F's number was because we were going to scrape paint of his house and he is out in Sandy Bay which is a taxi ride, so we left the house early thursday and coastered out to Old Harbour to meet them there so we didnt get all mixed up. We went and got lunch and Juicies, and had to stay with them because the ZL's were on their way wit a new phone and needed to be able to get in contact with them, so we were in O.H. from 10:30AM to like 5PM. We had a full day planned out of teaching which sucked that we didnt get to do, but whatever, it happens. There was a little tropical storm too so it was rainin wicked hard. I was glad we were inside shooting pool. When it rains here, its like people thing its the plague. No one is outside, or they are all underneath an over hang of a building, finding in the rain is pretty much pointless. We managed to salvage the day by teaching W and his fiance K. They are getting married this week. They have a really nice house. AC, couches, its what i imagine teaching the gospel in America is like. Quite, no distractions, the Spirit was really strong, which is rare here because there is always distractions. They committed to be baptized the second week of Sept. which is sooooooo awesome. They and three other people are our only investigators with solid dates. So friday, we had super planning, went out and chopped Mama G's yard and had a lesson with her and her daughter M, who's probably like 40. It was the first time i really saw them contemplating what we were saying and taking it to heart. They thought we got paid to do this and i think when they found out no one gets paid in the church, it softened their heart. We had zone conference in Kinston saturday morning so friday night we coastered out to Spanish Town and spent the night with the ZL's and the Linstead Elders (Taylor and Layton). It was really fun, played a lot of Domino. I think thats what im gonna do when i get home. Forget about school and buying a car, im gonna teach Gilson, Vern, Larry, Charlie, and Jonny Gamble to play domino and hang out with them at Pryors every morning playing. Its so addicting haha Saturday we crammed 8 large humans in a 6 man truck and made the squished ride hour ish to Kingston. Elder Vienes of the Seventy was there which was really cool to meet him, he's doing a mission tour right now. ZC lasted about 3 hours, and Pres. Hendricks talked and the Elder Vienes spoke the rest of the time. We talked about the Atonement and how to understand it and apply it to our investigators and then the second half of the time we talked about our numbers. Basically he said that we are on a lull right now and we that we are doing fine, but need to do better aka you cant do any worse, so lets make goals to do better. Im excited to see what happens, we are improving our finding efforts because the average number of investigators to baptisms is 52/1. but we dont wanna baptise just anyone, it would be better to only have one baptism that is solid and goes to church and is a solid member than 10 who just go inactive after they are baptised. So we will see. After ZC, we went to TGI Fridays which was aaaaaaaaaaaamazing because it was american food haha Then we went and helped a senior couple move some office stuff, and went and bought our guitars! :) Elder Nelson bought one too, spent way more money than me, and Im teaching him to learn before studies in the morning and when we get home after planning. He's doing good. My fingers are building those calluses back up, i forgot how much it hurt in the beginning! We took my guitar our finding the night we got them, sat on the corner by our house and just played. When people would walk by we would ask what song they wanted to hear and most of them said something by Kartel, so I'd play Summertime and they would freakout and dance and sing along. Then we'd give them a Restoration pamphlet and get an appointment with them. 3 new investigators in 15 minutes... not bad eh? ;) thanks for throwin that cash on there. I spent $22,500 jamaican on it, it was the cheapest guitar in the store but still wicked nice. acoustic electric, thin body so i can sling it over my shoulder, im loving it. Sunday was crazy. We had our lunch and dinner appointments like usual, had district conferance, but i had a guy tell me i walked like a bad man and i had ganster glasses on and he looked like he was ready to knuckle up. I told him i was really full from lunch so i was walking slower and i wear these welding glasses because they are nice and dark and wicked cheap haha then! a taxi man made fun of us for believing in Jesus and not Sellacei, and then on our way home we a taxi pulled up and said he'd give us a free ride, so we hopped in and thanked him. Nelson gave me the front seat... 15 seconds later he's preachin to us about how he's annointed and born to lead and stuff, and im just like "oh cool" "thats sweet" "awesome!" We pulled in front of the church, got out and started talking about joseph smith and how there is one living prophet on the earth today and he said he was an apostle... so we asked how the apostle were chosen in the bible and he started talking about how there was 120 called or something like that and he starts yellin and wavin his arms about this vision he recieved and how he saw Jesus tell him to go preach and become the leader of his church and stuff... and before we know it, he's yellin in this crazy language and stompin his feet and it looks like he's tryin to dive into the pavement, and this whole time Misister Sally is interpreting what he's saying. Four minutes later, as we are tryin our best not to laugh histerically, he stops, sweating like a fat man in a sauna, and is like "PRAISE JESUS! YOU JUST RECEIVED A WITNESS OF JESUS! LET THIS BE YOUR WITNESS!" So we just shake his hand and try to shake minister Sally's hand and Pastor Smith is like "dont do that! She's in the spirit!!" sooooo we left... it was pretty funny.

Well that was my week, pretty exciting, not to much frustration, which was nice. I wish i could do something to help you guys with maggie... know that i love you all!!! 

Elder Romney

Week 5 letter

Waa  gwan!

This week was a lot better than last week. I told myself i wasnt gonna be homesick anymore and somethin just clicked and ive been havin a great time.

Monday we had our p-day and i ended up taking a 5 hour nap!! i didnt sleep at all that night which was pretty lame but still, it felt great. Today we are in old harbour havin a combined pday with O.H. elders and the ZL's, which are always fun. Then monday night last week we went finding and found 5 people in like 45 minutes. It was awesome! I was gettin kinda discouraged because we'd been walking for about an hour and no one was out really or didnt wanna hear us, so we said a prayer and boom, 5 in 45 minutes. Pretty sweet. Kinda unheard of for a monday night. All in all we have 12 new investigators this week which is above our goal of ten! Cha!

Tuesday i went to Old harbour for a trade of wit Elder Toutui and it was really fun. He just walks around with his ukalale and plays for people and gives then a restoration pamphlet. Its a great finding tool. So we did that that night, got juicy's, and wrote this little song/rap on the uke:

 Livin in Jamaica, watch where it will take ya

wishin on my mission i was back home fishin and im missin all the kissin and at christmas i just listen

we be teachin da rastas da plan of salvation

livin in reggae nation but this aint no vacation

oatmeal and eggs on my breakfast rotation but ill eat anything without hesitation

24 months and 17 transfers

jamaica's got questions and we got answers

baptising people from day to day

find a lost soul along the way.

It was fun haha

Wednesday i was supposed to go on a trade off wit elder mackey (zone leader) to Spanish Town but they decided i should run my area for a day soooooo me and elder montgomery were in maypen all day. I totally got lost for like the first hour but then it went really smooth. taught p and mama g and n and h. P is supposed to be baptized on the 20th but she hasnt been to church because she cant get a ride out there so we are moving it back a couple weeks. kinda a bummer but she is still gung ho for it.

Thursday we went out to old harbour to pick up Elder Nelson, went back and (the most exciting part of the week) borrowed a guitar from elder baird, an office elder, because for friday night activity it was jamaican culture night and me and elder nelson did a mash up of Redemption Song (by bob marley), Closer To the Sun by slightly stoopid, not jamaican, but still reggaeish, three little birds, and summertime by cartel. it was sooooo awesome! everyone was jumpin up and down and signing along, ill send the SD card home in snail mail and its on there, you will have to watch it and load it to facebook or something. We bought rasta tuke's and wore dark shades too, soooo funnny!

Friday- we had super planning, went out and taught a few lessons, then had friday night where Drive By Lap Dance (the name of me and Nelson's band) performed a live acoustic show for the lovely saints of the Maypen branch. It seriously was the highlight of my mission so far! All the little kids were jammin along, i got a lot of pictures of them on this SD card, it should be getting there in like 3 weeks i think.

Saturday was our districts family fun day so we went out to Mandeville with the branch because we had an investegator named P going. It was pretty fun. Volleyball, futbol, dominos, ice cream, some food, and blaaaaazing music. seriously, it was nothing like a stake fun day back home. They were playin all their music loud and pround, even some lil wayne and eminem (which none of them can understand, just like we have a hard time understanding jamaican hip hop here, its pretty funny. We would be rapping to the lil wayne and they didnt ever know what he was saying) That lasted all day which was kinda a bummer because we were thinking we'd be done by like 2 and still be able to get some missionary work done, but we went and saw C, she's 14 and we've been seeing her for a while, but we are really pushing for sit down lessons and making sure she understands everyone. Her dad T is really cool, he owns a little bar, and im pretty sure he's baked of his rocker all the time... but whatever, everyone here is haha

Sunday was alright. Church was good, went to S for yummy lunch, went and tried to see the two people we found by W, then ate there, played some chess, and went back and taught C again and saw Z. 

How is my primary class????? i freakin miss them! Jaren should be leaving soon, yea? Hows teh ward? any new babies?? haha

A couple business things here: Will you please take like $200 from my savings and load it on my card? We are allowed to have a guitar here and id really like to buy one, not only because i love going home to a sexy six stringed instrument, but cuz it would be a sick finding tool. We packed it to the church and on the less that quarter mile walk, we played for 3 people. That would be great!! And i found a great place to buy jamaican christmas presents and souveniers for you guys :) Yes i got the SD card (finally)! mail takes forever to get here but it does get here which is good to know. Ill be sending the other one home pretty soon. I put on bug spray at night sometimes, on my ankles cuz we have these little ants that just bites your ffeet, but for the most part im not getting bit too bad and not noticing it that much either. I have a niiiiiice tan going on :) I wore sunscreen a couple times but i dont really burn anymore, my face does every once in a while, but its just a nice tan goin on, a year round tan, gotta love it :) As far as crazy religions go, we just get a lot of 7th day and baptists, screaming and singing hallelujah, and we gave a guy a restoration pamphlet and he told us that michelangelo was on the front when it was actually Jesus, but nothing super crazy yet. No voodoo yet which is nice. Its been fun. Well we are off to get our haircut and shoot some pool at juicies!! I love you all and love reading your emails. hopefully things calm down a bit over there and you guys arent so busy, but come on, what would the Romney's do if we werent busy ;)

I love you!

Elder Romney

OH! AND ive lost 13 pounds and two inches around my waist! yeah, pretty insane haha My pants are loose, thank goodness for belts! and im doing pushups in the morning now instead of bed yoga... its more effective.. 

Week 4 letter

Wha gwan!

Ok, to answer your questioms first, I'm in the Maypen branch, there is about 30-40 people tops that show up every sunday, I had to speak the first Sunday i was here! it was on obediance and it went really well. This week was better than last week because I've made friends in the ward out side of Elder Nelson. R, T, Z, T, they are pretty cool dudes. The priesthood authority in the branch is pretty weak, its not the strongest branch, but we're doing our best with what we have. When we sings hymns it takes me right back to home. Yes im on a bike, it's just been passed down from missionary, i think from elder Baird, and i dont have to pay for it if i take care of it, but i bought a new tube because tuesday my tire popped (ill explain later). I have one hour to read and write emails, and im strugglin to get my pictures loaded because the computers in the internet cafe are so slow. I got a letter from Dad today but ill be actually getting it wednesday because thats when ill be seeing the ZL's so its probably in there! :) The snail mail works, it just takes a little longer.

So! time for the day by day update:

Monday- It was P-day, i jammed with the rasta, and since it was holiday we didnt do much else, but we did get a new investegator which was sweet.

Tuesday- ohhhhh tuesday was rough. Elder Nelsons bike broke, so we went to the bike shop to get a new derailer after we emailed, then we got lunch, and it broke again, so we rode back to the shop, they fixed it, then we rode out to a lesson, and my tire popped. Rode to Youngs bike shop to get a tube and of course, they dont have a 26''. So walk our bikes to the church, lock them up, its pouring rain, and we walk up to Juno Cresent (about an hour) and teach H (recent convert) and P (baptism date for Aug 20th) and meet with mama G and her family who are also investigators. Her daughter N is interested but pretty skeptical and won't come to church but read a little from the Book of Mormon and watched the restoration DVD.

Wednesday- We walked to the church for district meeting (about an hour walk), after district meeting went to Juicy's (home of the famous beef patty!) and ate, shot some pool, and Elder and Gilson jumped on a Coaster (big toyota van full of people) back to Old Harbor for trade offs. We go on trade off's each week with them. We went finding for like 3 hours, i was dyyyyyyyyyyyin, sooo hot, i gotta buy some Dr. Scholls or somethin too cuz my shoes are not as comfy as they used to be haha had a lesson, yadayadayada and then bam, it was thursday.

Thursday- ohhhhhhhh thursday. met up with Nelson and Toutui in old harbor, got lunch, then coastered back to maypen, fixed my bike and taught a couple lessons to n and mama G. But! pretty cool thing happened, sittin on the coaster next to a lady who says she went to church in the bronx a couple times on vacation... what are the chances??? so I gave her a BoM, got her number, and hopefully we will be seeing her tomorow. Definetly an answer to my prayers. So then we are walking home, we worked through dinner, Elder Nelson is buyin some onions, and this guy walks up, speaking awesome english, (i still have a really hard time understanding patios by the way, its not the english they said i would be speaking!) and he asked who we were and stuff, gave him a BoM and he was super interested to meet up the next day. Another blessing, people are just coming up to us that day! So we are still walking home, and this El Camino with a bunch of scandelously dressed girls in the back pull up, music blazing (it was a party promotion car for a party in Kingston) and me and E. Nelson are just walking, keepin our head down, being good missionaries, and they start yellin at us to jump up in the car with them. So we laugh and smile and say "No WAY!" and keep walkin, next thing we know, we here from the loudspeaker on tope of the car "Girls! Get the white men!" and i turn around and before i can pull a Joseph and run away from Pharoh's wife (or however that story goes) i get double teamed by two jamaican girls, one grabs my backpack and the other takes the front and im gettin danced all over... so i am still walking, tryin to pull a lil spin move, slightely freaking out, but its no good. I look back and Nelson is gettin the same treatment from just one girl... it was the longest, most weird 6 seconds of my life hahaha They left and me and Elder Nelson are just laughing histerically. We arent sure what in the world just went down, so whats the first thing we do? "holy freak! We gotta call Toutui and Gilson!!" haha but the night is still young!! we are STILL walking home, and the clouds look like they are gonna open up pure hell on Jamaica (we thought because the girls were getting groovy on servants of the Lord) but we get inside and the Zone Leaders call and say to stay inside, a hurricane is passin by the island. It was pretty awesome, but we didnt get rained on at all until the next morning. Old Harbor got smoked with rain, flooding in the streets and everythin, lost power, it was nuts. So we just played some domino and watched the clouds for a bit.

Friday- we super planned in the morning, which is detailed planning for each of our investigators for three hours, called up B and he said he'd be at the church for a lesson, so did K, so we waited at the church for both of them and they flaked out which really sucked.

Friday night activity gets going and we are playing basketball with baby shaq (6'4'', 320 lbs) and another guy when Elders Toutui and Gilson show up because they are stayin the night because they are using our font for a baptism in the morning. And they take off running down the street to the taxi park. Turns out Toutui's bag got jacked, had his wallet and everything in it. so we are lookin around for the taxi man, he says he doesnt know where it went (the taxi man told toutui to put the bag in the trunk and took off before toutui remembered, shifty taximen do that all the time) so Nelson and him ride bikes home and me and Gilson were gonna get a cab home because it was almost curfew. Turns out, there wasnt a single taxi going to race track so we made the hour walk home. i was so wiped out. I was a crazy two days

Saturday- Helped with the baptism which took all morning, had lunch, then went up to mama G's and chopped some of her yard with machete's (so awesome!) she and n didnt wanna hear a lesson, so we made a couple calls and of course were turned down, went home and ate, then walked to zachs BUT i forgot a pair of socks he needed, so we turn around after already walking for twenty minuties, and sure enough, we ran into a lady named D who took a restoration pamphlet and we are meeting with her tonight. Blessings come at the weirdest times!

Sunday- Church, (fast sunday) came home and ate, went out finding and to z, then to T's for dinner, then met with travon and got to talking about why he should go on a mission. got blown off my G but were meeting with him tonight, and went and saw Brother C, a less active, and invited him to Culture night on friday at the church. For culture night me and Nelson are playing and singing some bob marley! oh, and if you wanna hear what son i hear about 7 times a day, because in jamaica, people just put huge subwoofers and speakers in the street, so there is litterally music going almost 24/7, its called Summertime by Cartel. Im already sick of it haha

This week was actually really hard... ive been pretty homesick. Saturday morning especially. I was tired and this whole week has been pretty hectic with the bikes breaking down and all the cancelations, so when i went to grab a pair of socks, i found mom's note that said "you are loved" and i broke down. I really miss you guys and think about you a lot. I love a busy full day, but a lot of times it didnt happen like i hoped. Jamaica is great though, besides the terrential downpours every once in a while that get all my stuff soaked ;) oh! i did my own laundry in the buckets! it turned out actually pretty nice, my shirts blew off the line though and landed in the dirt so they are a touch dirty. This week is going to be hectic too, im going on two trade offs, one in old harbor and one with Elder Mackey (zone leader) in Spanish town, so i wont hardly be in my own area. I feel your prayers and gain stregnth from them. Have a great week! Haley- dont hit anymore deer! Mac- .... ok, just make sure you have the single bass down before you go to crazy with my thrash metal music! Dad- any canuck news? im on an island when it comes to that! hehehe :) Love you all!!

Elder Romney

Elder Romney's first letter from Jamaica!

Wha Gwan family!

I don't even know where to really start! First! Im allowed to email everyone! Friends, family, the show shabang! So please put that up on my facebook with my email address.


So Anyways! Im so sorry i didnt email yesterday! It was a holiday in Jamaica so all the internet shops were closed. Same with the stores, so we're outta food... but anyways, things in May Pen are definitely different... I'm already coming to appretiate the little things in life like hot water, a washing machine, and having money because our budget is pretty tight... $240 a month! So im still gettin used to that for sure. Elder Nelson is a cool dude. He's in the Marines but is pretty funny. He's been out almost a year and is from Bountiful UT (aka 'the factory'). Elder Layton is in my zone! Which is pretty sweet, he's in Linsted. We live in Racetrack, which is the name of the main road through May Pen, besides Main Road, that’s the other main road ;) We live in the top floor of a house, I took pictures of the insides. Yes, we have a coconut tree and a banana tree in the front of it! It's about 80 degrees at 6:30 AM, so we have fans in our bedroom and in the study room. I wore sunscreen once but haven’t been burned since... and have a nice farmers tan already! Our daily schedule consists of waking up at 6:30, moaning in groaning about how tired we are for 5 minutes, then get up and mosey around, eat breakfast, which has been Frosted Flakes, this morning it was PB&J because we were out of frosted flakes, then kinda just chill, clean the house a bit, take a nice cold shower (only because there isn’t hot water in our house.) Then personal study at 8, companion study at 9, and out the door by ten! An hour for lunch and an hour for dinner, yadayadayada and bam, home between 9 and 9:30, plan for half an hour, then usually its just sleepy time. Or we play domino, which i am really good at! Unless we are playing Jamaicans... then i get murdered... but its basically like mexican train but four up to only four people and less dominoes.

So the weather is ridiculously hot or insanely wet here. I literally haven’t been dry since July 26th, when we were in the states. You're either sweating like a fat guy or soaked from the torrential downpour. We've only had one downpour but it got me nasty (hence the picture). We don't have a washer or dryer, so washing clothes consists up putting them in a bigish bucket, pouring detergent and bleach in there, and letting them soak for a day. Then scrubbin out the dirt with this blue soap stuff, and letting them soak some more, then rinse (soaking in more water, but clean water) , then dry outside. My white shirts are currently in rinse mode. Safe to say that those shirts are not coming home with me in 18 transfers because they will be naaaaaaaaaaasty!

The people here are either really nice or jerks, but mostly nice. At night its apart of the culture to say goodnight to everyone you pass on the street, or even just acknowledge people as you walk by. "Alright" is like "hey", "Wha gwan" is "whats going on", "Batty boy" means you're a homo... we don't greet with that, but we get it sometimes, and thought you should know ;) No crazy encounters with guns or violence yet which is pretty tight. May Pen is a pretty safe place, says Elder Nelson who's been here almost 6 months. But the traffic in Jamaica makes mom's driving look like an old lady driving :) No speed limits, they drive on the other side of the road which took some getting used too because we ride our bikes on the left side now too, and everyone honks for everything! "you need a taxi? HOOOONK!" "Long time no see! HOOOONK!" "Im extremely gassy! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!" its nuts. And its almost like there is three lanes. Two going each way, and then what missionaries call the "faith lane". Cars split traffic like motorcycles, and pull out whenever, but surprisingly the only vehicular accident I’ve seen was a head on collision between car and goat... goat lost. Goats just wonder the streets everywhere, seriously, everywhere. I want to ride one really bad. Or milk it... because you can milk anything with nipples...

The food is delicious! We've been out a few times and anywhere you go, you get soooo much rice and peas (beans)! But they are tasty. Haven't had jerk chicken yet but i have had three juici patties, which is like beef inside a pastry dumpling thing, then you put it in coco bread and sweet hallelujah its like Jamaica's taco bell.Bag juice is like an otterpop in a little bag, I had a fresh Mango (pronounced Mongo) yesterday as we... get this... jammed with a Rasta at his recording studio! Ya! it was so freakin awesome. He had a Fender Strat and we jammed, him on his tambourine and Elder Toutie (toe tie) on the keys. Pretty rad. Ive also had fresh coconut milk, very good, fish, and this stufff called veggie chunks which sounds gross but its like this tofu veggie stuff that tastes like meat and its delicious. Road kill wise, ive seen goat, frog, lizard, dog, and cat, in case mac was wondering.

The little kids are so cute! I can officially to the homie handshake in its entirety and im darn good at it because thats how everyone greets each other here. Even little kids. Ahhh they are so cute! I love them, we do magic tricks for them and they freak out, "How ya do dat!?" "White man dem magic!" its awesome.

Living conditions for Jamaicans are bleak. Fences are made outta rusty sheet metal, houses are made outta cinderblocks and sheet metal, just about everyone is dirt poor. A nice house is big, more than one room, has a porch, and is made outta cement, not cinder blocks (I know, my spelling is awesome). All the windows have bars over them, and we don't go door to door knocking, everyone has a gate, so we yell from the gate. We haven’t done any finding really yet because we have a lot of people to teach. We have three people on date to be baptized on the 20th, but we think J was high as a kite when we asked him and he committed so we are gonna bring that back up tonight. The Spirit is here, but its nothing like the MTC. We try and get people to read the Book of Mormon as much as we can because we cant really go on until they show they are interested enough to keep that one commitment of reading. But P is doing really good and will probably be baptized on the 20th. Her little boy T is adorable. We were teaching her and T doesn’t have any shoes, and everything is rocky in Jamaica, but i opened my scripture case and he came right up to me and stood on it the whole time, he's probably 1 and a half. He was playing with my sunglasses, and he broke them, but i didnt mind because his little cornrows were sooooo cute. He didn’t wanna get off my case, but we are going back today so we will get some more relief from standing on rocks all day.

Those pictures were hilarious! Definetly cracked me up! Things sound like they are ogin great at home. What else is new?

crap! I dont have time to upload pictures! but it will be the first thing i do next week, but I love you all! I think about you everyday! Homesickness has set in a number of times but im handling it well. Love you all! Talk to you MondaY!

Elda Rominey, Robey, and Rodney (they cant pronounce Romney to save their lives ;)